Fires starting up with all the electrical storm activity.
In Northern Gramps at Wartook, Pohlners Rd and Roses Gap. Keep an eye on the progress of these if you've got Stapylton or Mt Difficult in mind for this weekend. They'll probably be out by then but there's going to be a southerly wind change on Friday.

Another couple of fires in southern Vic Range. Probably not going to be a big problem. Nothing much left to burn if they start travelling north anyway.

Just letting you know that the entire Grampians National Park has been closed as of around midday today. This has been done in the interests of public safety and will be reviewed midday Saturday 18th Jan.
With regards to closure signs, the reality is that currently there are only road closure signs in place in some parts of the Northern Grampians - north of Mt Victory Rd. The plan is to work with the various shires and try and get some more signs out for southern parts. Hopefully this will be tomorrow morning.

Please get the word out to all those that you know that the entire park is closed, not just a few roads here and there. I would imagine human resources will be pushed to the limit as they always are in this kind of situation and the more the community can get the word around, the better it will be.
Some of the fires are burning quite hard. The Hollow Mountain area fire falls into this category.

I was just looking at the BOM rain radar and there appeared to be rain in the Ararat Stawell area which would be fantastic timing to help put the fires out. However, then I thought it could just be the smoke fooling the software. Any comments by someone in the know!